One of the four climbers injured on Taygetos spoke about the ordeal he and his friends experienced. Just hours after the dramatic rescue of 8 young people who had been trapped, he has realized that they were all lucky considering what happened to them. According to his statements to Live News, the climbers had the necessary equipment for the ascent and had taken all required safety measures.
“Whatever each person chooses to do, they also take the risks. We knew where we were going. We had the knowledge, we had the equipment,” the climber mentioned on the Mega show.
Everything happened yesterday (18/01) at one in the afternoon. During the ascent, one of the climbers slipped and dragged the others with him.
“The area is what it is – a winter mountain with its snow and ice. We were lucky. We weren’t trapped in a sense. We fell. We got hurt as much as we got hurt. Then we got up, we kept moving. We waited for the helicopter there for 1.5 hours, it never stopped. The man couldn’t approach, as he says,” he added.
Taygetos: The climber who slipped dragged the others who were behind him
It should be noted that the four injured climbers needed to be evacuated by helicopter. For this purpose, a helicopter from the Unified Search and Rescue Coordination Center was immediately mobilized, but it failed to approach due to adverse weather conditions.
“The helicopter came more for show and then we continued to descend on our own. We descended half the mountain and then the guys from 112, EMAK came and helped us. We were fine, the issue was just the cold. If we had stayed up (on the mountain) they would have been ‘crying for us’,” the climber told the television station.
The team’s instructor says the accident that almost cost lives occurred at a frozen spot.
“They were roped together. It was a strange spot that was frozen and that’s why it happened there. It was where it shouldn’t have happened. It wasn’t rock climbing. It was walking.”
As he says, the climber who slipped dragged the others who were behind him and they couldn’t hold him back.
“It was walking and the specific spot was just very icy and someone slipped and dragged the others and the others couldn’t stop the fall.”
“There were also instructors with the mountaineering group”
The climbers were waiting for help to arrive at the Portes position, in a difficult spot near the “Prophet Elias” peak. Subsequently, the injured were transferred to a hospital for precautionary examinations, while today (19/01) they are expected to be discharged from the hospital.
The operation involved 41 firefighters with mountaineering teams from the 1st and 6th EMAK, along with volunteers.
According to Christos Belogiannis, who is a mountain guide, there were also instructors in the mountaineering group.
“There were instructors with them. The conditions were ideal for conducting this mountaineering lesson.”
It’s worth noting that the four injured climbers are in good health and are trying to put behind them what they experienced on Taygetos.
